Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Vora Zorell (Scientist) in Johann’s Quarters- Unexpected Messages

Posted by Captain Johann Dvorak (CO) in Johann’s Quarters- Unexpected Messages

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Vora Zorell (Scientist) in Johann’s Quarters- Unexpected Messages

(snip)

Jolted into action, Vora helped to clear up the mess, her mind all the while whirling. He was right, normally she didn’t freeze. Her mind might be sucked back into a vivid memory, but that wasn’t the same as being unable to act upon the information in front of her. Heart beats and breaths filled the silence before she figured out what to say. “Someone found me. I don’t know how, which scares the hell out of me, but… they claim to recognize my description of my mother’s yellow topaz ring.” She looked up at Johann as she dried part of the desk . “Apparently this man gave Jaisa Hass the ring that he had custom made. But how did he find me here? I made sure that I didn’t write anything that suggested I was on a starship, so someone couldn’t go hunting for Tenraith working and living off-world. So that tells me he has connections. Probably power.” She stood up fully, her right hand holding the wet cloth shaking as she worked through the permutations of the situation.

~Vora Zorell, Sciences

Johann thought about this as he dried the desk.

“He knew who Jaisa Hass was,” he thought aloud. “Once he recognized the ring, he had a thread to follow through her, and any other details you left in the story. Like that you grew up in the District. Or that your mother died when you were five. It wouldn’t take anything special to get a list of every girl born in Kebbran on a particular year. Especially if the medical records would have noted memory. He could have gotten your name that way, and from there did plenty of public records searching to find out you’re in Starfleet and send you mail.” After all, Vora was a published scientist, which was a couple of steps above total obscurity. Assuming you trust your doctor, of course, he thought. Even if Doctor Dor Alkia was trustworthy, it didn’t mean she couldn’t have been compromised.

Vora visibly shuddered. After the mess with Roquan and her suspiciously connected uncle, Torno Hass, Vora was wary when it came to Tenra. But Johann was right. If someone had the right starting points, she was findable. It had always been the risk of putting her memoir out there, even anonymously. Someone would know who had authored the posts, or find a way to find out the person who had posted it on her behalf.

Her instinct was to panic, but she didn’t have enough information and leaping to conclusions would not help.

“What does he want from you?”

– Johann Dvorak, CO

I don’t know. With a sighed, she dropped the cloth and sat back down, exhaling. “I suppose I should finish reading the message. I’m sorry for the mess. Hopefully everything is okay.” Vora almost intoned it as a question but it either was or wasn’t and he’d tell her otherwise.

Ehh? he thought. Whatever the water spilled on, it wasn’t worth getting upset about.

Sitting back down, she read the message aloud.

Dear Imrei Zorell,

Vora snorted and looked up at Johann. “Imrei is an honourific used most commonly for someone with advanced education. Tenra handles graduate type studies differently, and if differentiates between medical doctors and those who study specific topics for a number of years. Which is a really long explanation to say I’m amused that he used it. I’ve never had anyone use it. It sounds strange to me.”

Johann smirked at that.

She continued, translating as she went.

“There has been quite a bit of talk recently about posts that were made on a forum from a woman who had grown up in The District. At first I thought nothing of it until some colleagues were discussing them and one read a passage discussing a yellow topaz ring. It was a random detail, it could mean anything. But in that passage the author mentions that after investigating the ring seems to have been custom made. I knew right then. See, I know about the ring because I had one made just like it for a Jaisa Hass, the love of my life. Jaisa, like the ring, were lost to me but that is a long story not fit for a message like this.

“That’s as far as I got before I dropped the glass, but there’s more.” Vora steadied herself and kept going.

“It took a bit of digging, but I already knew the answer to my question: Jaisa had a child not long after she disappeared. If she kept the ring and it is indeed the one that I gave her, then you must by all logic be her daughter. I don’t know for sure if that makes you my daughter, but I highly suspect it does. With this in mind, I read the posts on that forum for myself, desperate to know more about the author, and about Jaisa.

Jaisa Torya Hass, or Torya Zorell as I learned she had changed her name too, had had a rough life. A woman from privilege she had gotten into trouble through some friends of hers. We met during a good patch of hers. I had mistakenly thought I could save her, help her move past her addiction.” Tears carved paths over Vora’s cheeks and though her voice was shaky, she kept reading. “A few years after she disappeared, after every lead I followed dried up, I had this deep sinking suspicion one day that was she dead. I stopped looking, and it is a regret I’ve had ever since. That time coincides with you being five, of her dying.

I can’t change not being there, or the fact that I didn’t know about her child, but I know now. And what I’ve learned about you so far tells me that you have done incredible things with your life, feats unheard of for those raised in The District. I don’t want to force myself into your life if you don’t me there, but I think we owe it to ourselves to check to see if it is indeed possible that I am your father. I am happy to arrange that however you like. The simplest would be for me to send my medical record with DNA scan to compare to yours. All you have to do is ask.

Vora, I can’t change anything, except for this one thing: if I am indeed your father, then that means you are not an orphan anymore. You are not alone- you have family.

With deepest curiosity,
Kiero Roden”

“He sounds nice,” she said, her voice pitching upwards before she broke into sobs. Bracing her elbows on the desk, she buried her face in her pale yellow hands, utterly overwhelmed.

~Vora Zorell, Sciences

Johann made his way to the same side of the desk that Vora was sitting on. By simply touching her once, he silently offered himself as a surface to be cried upon if needed. It was going to be one of those moments where that would probably go on for quite a bit.

He had observations about the situation, all of which were too impolite to blurt out right at this moment. We can probably stalk this guy right back to see if he’s legit. I should probably do that. And probably expect to take a trip to Tenra soon. He must be loaded. I really should know more about this planet if I’m going to marry into it… it keeps butting in…

– Johann Dvorak, CO